Main Street To Bask In Glow Of Holiday Lights

OLD SAYBROOK — Main Street will glow with nearly 5,000 Christmas lights starting this evening thanks to a garden club project that began last December.

Club members began collecting used Christmas trees last year and saved the top 5 feet of 24 of them, said Barbara Maynard, the town's former first selectwoman and a garden club member.

They spray painted them white, hung roughly 200 white lights on each and fastened them into planters along the median. Each planter is decorated with greens and holly at the base and red velvet bows.

The lights are expected to be switched on tonight, Thanksgiving eve, Maynard said, and remain on throughout the holiday season. The annual Saybrook Stroll, an evening carnival along Main Street, is scheduled for Dec. 2. The annual Torchlight Parade is planned for Dec. 10.

Last year, the Main Street lights were turned on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the traditional start of the Christmas season.

``People came forward and said, `We're having all this company for Thanksgiving and we'd really like them to see how pretty Old Saybrook looks,' '' said Joan Pastore, publicity chairwoman for the garden club. So despite pushing the season just a bit, the club decided to throw the switch two days earlier this year, she said.

The Christmas lights project, like the $300,000 renovation planned for the Main Street median next spring, drew plenty of volunteer support and services, organizers said.

Power for the Christmas lights is being supplied at no cost by Northeast Utilities; the Hartford Electric Supply Co. on Main Street provided wire and clamps; electrician Jim Crozier donated the connections; Bob Antoniac supplied 1,200 feet of conduit; The Paint Shop on Main Street donated six gallons of white paint for the trees; Marlborough Country Barn on Main Street contributed the ribbons; and Patrick's Country Store on Main Street, run by Maynard's son Barry, supplied plant stakes, wire, greens, ``doodads'' and a staging area.

Maynard and her husband, George, collected and painted the trees, set up the planters and installed the wiring, which building official Don Lucas inspected and approved.

Next Christmas, the median renovation project, initiated by the garden club, should be completed. The project includes widening the median and installing bricks and Belgian block curbing.

Because Main Street is part of Route 154, at least $275,000 of the project will be paid for with state and federal money. The balance is being raised in the garden club's Light Up Old Saybrook campaign and may come from the town's general fund if voters approve.